Virdia Inc. a subsidiary of Stora Enso, a Helsinki-based global manufacturer of pulp and paper, biomaterials, wood products and packaging industries, announced plans to build a $60 million biochemical processing plant in Lafourche Parish.

The new plant will convert sugar cane bagasse, or sugar cane waste, into industrial sugars and biofuels and the plants will be beside the Raceland Raw Sugar Corp. mill in Raceland, La.

Virdia officials said in a statement Tuesday (Sept.2) that they've also secured an agreement to use 80,000 tons per year of Raceland's bagasse.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based Virdia Inc. was recently acquired by Stora Enso Oyj, a $14 billion-per-year forestry products company headquartered in Finland, with operations worldwide. The company will begin hiring in 2015, expecting to complete the $60 million project in Raceland by the end of 2016.

"We chose Louisiana due to the accessibility of a nonfood-competing, sustainable raw material – sugar cane bagasse – which will enable us to validate the technology and develop further the applications and possibilities offered by this technology," Virdia Managing Director Otavio Pontes said in a statement Tuesday. "In addition, the support that Raceland Raw Sugar and the Louisiana Economic Development agency is giving in making available a site that offers necessary other resources and infrastructure was also a significant factor. This investment in Louisiana is the logical next step for the industrial validation of the newly acquired extraction and separation technology."

The project will create 81 new direct jobs, averaging $55,000 a year, plus benefits. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project to result in 469 new indirect jobs, for a total of 550 new jobs in the region and surrounding areas. In addition, an estimated 120 construction jobs will be generated by the project.

"This project will be a boon for our farmers and refiners in the sugar industry, and it also will create great jobs for our families in Louisiana – where today we have more people working than ever before," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said.

LED began talking with the company about a potential project in August 2012. To secure the project, the state of Louisiana offered Virdia incentives including a performance-based, $1 million Economic Development Award Program grant to offset infrastructure costs.

Virdia is also expected to use LED's FastStart program and the state's Industrial Tax Exemption Program.